Metamorphism
Shahar Livne (1989) is an Israeli-born designer living in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. She graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven.
Her project ‘Metamorphism’ speculates on the future of new raw materials based on discarded plastics within the context of craftsmanship. It entails a research on what is natural and what new aesthetics and cultural realities could emerge related to plastics when we no longer merely see them as polluting, massed-produced and cheap materials.
Shahar Livne: “Climate change, deforestation and pollution threaten the existence of many natural raw materials used in traditional craftsmanship. As those materials disappear, the knowledge of those crafts disappears along with them. At the same time, new natural materials are emerging. The presence of man-made plastics in the environment naturally forms a new material resource, marking a shift between old notions of nature and culture. I imagine a not too distant future, beyond peak oil, where petrol-based plastics can be collected from nature as semi-natural hybrid materials, used as a new raw material by craftspeople.”
“I created a new clay-like material based on discarded plastics designated for landfilling or incineration and waste-stream sediments (colliery spoil and marble leftovers), which I envision as a valuable future commodity. The new material is named ‘lithoplast’, derived from ancient Greek (lithos is the word for rock or stone, and plast means that something can be molded or shaped). The material is formed in a process borrowed from geology called metamorphism, the same process that transforms limestone into marble in nature. This material can be used for sculptural handmade products, illustrating a new speculative cultural value. At the moment I am testing its potential for further conceptual design applications.”